Tim Murphy, Search and Rescue Operational Training Exercise, Detonated Car Bomb
Deployment to Connecticut for work with CRASAR and search and rescue teams from across the US on a 24 hour response drill to a car bomb.
October 6-10 (Sun-Thur)
Sunday- Orientation
Monday - Tuesday-
Started day at Fire/Rescue Training Facility in Stamford.
Ran through confinement course.
Operated robots in search/rescue/patient assessment operations throughout the course.
Trained technical rescue specialist in operation of the robot and the medical payload package.
Looked for areas of improvement in current training as well as possible future interface development on the robots. Interface is a collection of phone key pads and toggle switches, with a joystick. Training program could be a huge hit here.
Wed-Thursday. On Scene.
Deployed to the scene at 3pm.
Staging ground was outside of attacked apartment complex.
Backside of apartment complex was subjected to a car bomb. Small piles of rubble had collapsed over victims, communication had not been established with them, and the structural integrity of the building had not been verified preventing fire/rescue from entering the side of the building that was attacked.
We were called by the Fire/Rescue team to do an evaluation of the building using the robots, but although we were at the staging grounds, we had not checked in yet. This prevented us from officially being there, and getting to deploy. Checking in at the operations center is mandatory in all USR operations. We were rushed through check in so that we could deploy. The delay was not a fault on anyone's part, just part of the system involved in management at the scene.
Once checked in, we were able to deploy from the SUV. Around Sunset.
After checking in we broke off into our pre assigned strike teams and deployed to different floors on the building. I was on floor 3 with Dr. Robin Murphy to do evaluations of the attacked side of the building for structural safety. Once I had deployed the robot into the room, the fire/rescue team was able to operate it themselves using the training from days before to verify the building's structural safety and look for survivors.
No survivors were found. Upon completion, we packed up, went through decon procedure, and returned to the staging area.
We were later deployed to the rubble pile, looking for survivors.
Meals were handled by the American Red Cross. Plumbing was made available by the city managers opening up the nearby stadium. The nearby stadium could have been used as a staging ground or triage for patients if need be.
We spent the night at the rubble pile, ran operations all through the night and into the next morning. I left at 1pm to catch a flight.
Fin. More images can be found here. Click any of the above images for larger images. Most of the photos shown are courtesy of Bob Younger (the good ones anyway). Good Morning America review is here.
October 14, 2002 4:11 PM